Florida Prepaid tuition plan prices are expected to drop nearly $20,000 by next year, according to the Florida Prepaid College Board.
The lowered rate is mandated by House Bill 851, which Gov. Rick Scott signed into law last week and will go into effect July 1. It is the same bill that legalized in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants in Florida.
The Stanley G. Tate Florida Prepaid College Program payment plan allows parents or guardians to finance a child’s college tuition early by paying monthly installments as the child grows up.
More than 11,600 UF students received awards from the program in the 2012-2013 year, said UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes.
Cindy Lorenzo, a 21-year-old UF biology senior, said she’s thankful her parents started investing in her early.
“I’ve been paying it for so long that the weight of college tuition isn’t so heavy on me,” she said.
Now, Lorenzo said, it’s even less of a burden.
Students currently receiving aid will be reimbursed or credited the difference in aid, while future students enrolled in Florida Prepaid will simply pay a lower ticket price from the start.
Lorenzo said if she receives the money in the form of a refund, she will still use it for its intended purpose.
“I would use it to contribute toward my graduate school,” she said.
The fee reductions are an attempt to combat the trend of tuition hikes that have been growing since 2008, when the state enacted a law allowing universities to raise tuition up to 15 percent above the state-mandated rate.
“We are the largest and longest running prepaid program in the nation,” Florida Prepaid College Board executive director Kevin Thompson said in a press release.
He said this legislation will make sure the program continues to keep that title.
Specifically, HB851 eliminates any increase in fees charged above the state-mandated rate for state universities excluding UF and Florida State University, whose fee increases are now limited to 6 percent above the state standard.
According to the Florida Prepaid College Board, 4-Year Florida University Plans and 2+2 Florida Plans purchased from the contract year 2011 to 2014, as well as Tuition Differential Fee Plans purchased from the contract year 2008 to 2014 will now cost lower than they have in five years.
Monthly payments for new contracts are estimated at $250, down from $350.
Those estimates will become concrete Oct. 15, when open enrollment officially begins.
This is good news, said 22-year-old UF advertising senior Maria Eisenhart.
She said the decision of whether to sign up for Florida Prepaid has been hard for some of her friends.
“My best friend got it for her niece,” she said.
But she said her friend has two nieces and had to choose between the two.
Now she will likely be able to afford to pay for both, she said.
Eisenhart said she plans to do the same for her future children.
“You don’t know what situation you’ll be in financially as a parent, or what the child will be in.” With Prepaid, she said, “at least they have, like, one step in the door.”
[A version of this story ran on pages 1 - 4 on 6/19/2014 under the headline "Florida Prepaid prices drop, students to be reimbursed"]
